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 PCHR

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

http://www.pchrgaza.or

 

Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

No. 14/2010

01-07 April 2010

 

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

 

·              The body of an activist of the Palestinian resistance was found in the Gaza Strip having been missing for one week.

 

·              5 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

 

·              IOF continued to fire at Palestinian farmers and workers in border areas of the Gaza Strip.

 

·              Israeli warplanes conducted a series of air strikes against civilian targets in the Gaza Strip.

 

·              A dairy factory, two country houses, a room of another home and an automobile were destroyed.

 

·              IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank.

 

·              3 journalists were injured.

 

·              IOF conducted 15 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and one incursion into the Gaza Strip.

 

·              IOF arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children, in the West Bank.

 

·              Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

 

·              Israel has continued its settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

 

·              Israeli settlers threatened to expel Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.

 

·              A British human rights defender was injured by Israeli settlers.

 

 

 

Summary

 

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reporting period (01 – 07 April 2010):

 

Shootings: During the reporting period, medical personnel found the body of an activist of the Palestinian resistance who had been killed a week earlier during armed clashes with IOF in the southern Gaza Strip.  IOF also wounded 5 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

 

On 02 April 2010, medical personnel of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society found the body of Jihad 'Ata Suleiman al-Daghma, 18, near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of 'Abassan village, east of Khan Yunis.  Al-Daghma, an activist of the Palestinian resistance, was killed during armed clashes between the Palestinian resistance and IOF in the area on Friday, 26 March 2010, during which two Palestinians were killed and 6 others wounded.

 

During the reporting period, IOF launched a series of air strikes against civilian targets in the Gaza Strip.  Two Palestinian children were wounded, and a dairy factory, two country homes, a room of another home and a car were destroyed. 

 

In the West Bank, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded and 3 journalists sustained bruises during the reporting period when IOF used excessive force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest of the construction of the Annexation Wall and settlement activities in the West Bank.  

 

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 15 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.  IOF arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children. 

 

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted one limited incursion into Palestinian areas, during which they leveled areas of land that they had previously razed. 

 

Restrictions on Movement: Israel has continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

 

Gaza Strip

 

Israel has continuously closed all border crossings to the Gaza Strip for over two and a half years. The illegal Israeli-imposed siege of Gaza, which has steadily tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.   

 

·       On Friday, 01 January 2010, IOF decided to close Nahal Ouz crossing permanently, and to allow the entry of fuels through Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, southeast of Rafah, claiming security reasons.     

 

·       1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education.

 

·       The main concern of the population of the Gaza Strip is to obtain their basic needs of food, medicines, water and electricity supplies.

 

·       Israel has continued to prevent the entry of raw construction materials into the Gaza Strip for more than two and a half years.

 

·       Israel has not allowed fuel supplies into the Gaza Strip, excluding limited amounts of cooking gas and energy fuel for Gaza Power Plant, since 10 December 2008.

 

·       The Rafah International Crossing Point has been opened for a few days for a number of patients who received medical treatment abroad and needed to return home to the Gaza Strip.

 

·       Israel had continued to close Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing to Palestinian civilians wishing to travel to the West Bank and Israeli for medical treatment, trade or social visits.

 

·       Israel has imposed additional restrictions on access of international diplomats, journalists and humanitarian workers to the Gaza Strip. They have prevented representatives of several international humanitarian organizations from entering the Gaza Strip.

 

·       Living conditions of the Palestinian civilian population have seriously deteriorated; levels of poverty and unemployment have mounted sharply.

 

·       At least 800 Gazan prisoners in Israeli jails have been deprived of family visitation for more than two and a half years. 

 

·       IOF have continued to attack Palestinian fishermen along the coast of the Gaza Strip.

 

West Bank

 

IOF have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem.

 

·       IOF have established checkpoints in and around Jerusalem, severely restricting Palestinian access to the city. Civilians are frequently prevented from praying at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

 

·       There are approximately 630 permanent roadblocks, manned and unmanned checkpoints across the West Bank. In addition, there are some 60 - 80 ‘flying’ or temporary checkpoints erected across the West Bank by IOF every week.

 

·       When complete, the illegal Annexation Wall will stretch for 724 kilometers around the West Bank, further isolating the entire population. 350 kilometers of the Wall have already been constructed. Approximately 99% of the Wall has been constructed inside the West Bank itself, further confiscating Palestinian land.

 

·       At least 65% of the main roads that lead to 18 Palestinian communities in the West Bank are closed or fully controlled by IOF (47 out of 72 roads).

 

·       There are around 500 kilometers of restricted roads across the West Bank. In addition, approximately one third of the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, is inaccessible to Palestinians without a permit issued by the IOF. These permits are extremely difficult to obtain.

 

·       IOF continue to harass, and assault demonstrators who hold peaceful protests against the construction of the Annexation Wall.

 

·       Palestinian civilians continue to be harassed by IOF in Jerusalem, and across the West Bank, including being regularly stopped and searched in the streets by IOF.

 

Settlement Activities: Israel has continued its settlement activities and Israeli settlers living in the OPT in violation of international humanitarian law have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.  

 

On 05 April 2010, the Israeli Sephardim Association and the Gila Shimon Company handed threatening letters to the al-Dajani and al-Daoudi families, urging them to evacuate their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah housing project in Jerusalem.  The families have been living in these homes since 1956.  The Israeli organizations claim that they own the land on which these homes are built.  They had previously expelled several other Palestinian families from their homes in the area. 

 

During the reporting period, lawyers of Israeli settlers who seized homes belonging to the Hannoun family demanded the family pay 13,086 NIS to cover the costs of evacuating their houses. Otherwise, Majed and Khalil Hannoun would be imprisoned. Israeli settlers had seized homes belonging to the family on 09 August 2010. 

 

On 06 April 2010, a number of Israeli settlers from a settlement outpost in the Sheikh Jarrah area of Jerusalem attacked several Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders and made threats to Arabs.  A British human rights defender was injured. When Palestinian civilians attempted to stop the attack by settlers, IOF intervened and escorted the settlers away from the area.

 

 

 

Israeli Violations Documented during the Reporting Period (01 – 07 April 2010)

 

The full report is available online at:

http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/?option=com_content&view=article&id=6360:weekly-report-on-israeli-human-rights-violations-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-01-07-april-2010&catid=84:weekly-2009&Itemid=183

 

 

 

Public Document

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